Wrath of the Wraiths
by Zeka
Summary: A sudden attack by a dark power leaves the Terran commanders with an uneasy alliance as their only hope of survival.
1. Quiet in the jungle

The primary base had existed on Xiatus Three for years as an outpost of the UED. On the edge of Terran space, much of the rest of the planet was unexplored. The purpose of the base was to monitor the system and detect any invasion attempts of the core Terran worlds. The base was built on a hill and the defenses were quite strong. Multiple missile turrets lined the edges of the hill and tanks set to siege mode overlooked the valley below. Bunkers spread out at equally spaced intervals provided additional defense. The bunkers generally were manned only by marines equipped with U-238 shells. Being on the hill firebats were of little use inside the bunkers unless the base was actually invaded, and the idea of the defenses was to keep that from happening. Ghosts patrolled the grounds on foot, ready to lock-down any attacking ship.

The supply of minerals was quite large, and since there had been no major attack against the base the amount of minerals and gas needed was low. After the base had been built not much more construction was needed. The primary command center was in a prominent position in the center with a comsat station linked to it. There were two more at the base, one with another scanner and the third with a nuclear silo, although no one though that the nuke would ever be needed. The production capabilities of the base, which included two barracks, two factories and three starports, could create a sizeable task force in a relatively small amount of time. There were two science facilities, one with a covert ops and the other with a physics lab, to allow battlecruisers and ghosts to be produced at the same time. Two armories had been built to upgrade weapons and armor faster but now both sat idle, although they were still needed so that the factories could build goliaths. With their charon booster missile upgrades, goliaths were an important part of the base's anti-air defense.

"Teal three-seven, you are cleared for departure," the control tower radioed to Captain Blythe, who was preparing for one of many routine air patrol missions around the vicinity of the base. To be able to know in advance of any potential attack, the area surrounding the base was watched regularly. Since they didn't expect any attack, the patrols were usually kept to just two wraiths. If they were suddenly overwhelmed, they could always quick cloak and high tail it back to base, where the attackers would likely be pulverized by the barrage of bullets and missiles. Blythe's mission this time was to head northeast up to the lake, then follow the river west until reaching the mud fields, and return on a southeast heading across the patch of raised jungle and back to the high dirt and grass formation upon which the base had been built.

"Roger tower." Teal three-seven, accompanied by his wingman teal three-eight, fired up their engines and left the vicinity of starport two. Blythe looked down and saw a bengalaas roaming freely around the open grass. He felt similarly free when flying his wraith. He was free to move about as he chose, unbounded by the terrain features.

"There's Yubichu Lake," he said to his wingman. There was a small grove of trees and bushes growing along its banks.

"It's things like that that keep me from getting bored on these missions," Captain Keets answered. "When we're out here it's almost like being a part of the jungle. It's rather peaceful."

"It is." The two fighters came left and followed their course along the river. Even the river itself seemed almost alive, for its direction and width were not the same at any two points along it, at least for as much of it that had been explored.

They came to the point where the river flowed around a field of mud and rocky dirt. There was little vegetation here and although the Terrans mostly kept to the base it was believed that from this point the river continued on into a desert region of the planet where it probably eventually dried up. The rock formations in the area were almost artistic, as if someone had arranged them into and abstract but almost beautiful array.

"Well, another run and nothing new to see," Keets commented.

"Did you expect anything?" Blythe asked.

"No, not really."

"For me it's not so much about the missions anymore. They're always the same. It's just about the flight and getting to enjoy a setting that most have to vacation to see."

"Yeah, that's a good way to look at it."

The two fighters turned again and assumed a heading back to base, leaving the seemingly empty jungle until the next patrol. Of course they missed the two eyes that were watching them from a small hole dug into the ground.


	2. Out of darkness

The night air was crisp and cool, but still retained some of the heat of the day. Rather than spend their whole duty shift sitting in the bunker, Privates Nokby and Smith, or Joe and Marty, as they called each other, decided to go outside. They could cover more area on a slow walk than sitting in one place anyway. Besides, this area had not seen any action since the last battle against the Zerg, which was five years ago now. Earth years, that is. It was about three and a half years on this planet.

The ground was the familiar dusty light brown of this desert world and rocky mountains rose up in the distance. The last color was fading from the sky as the second sun retreated behind the mountains. The first had set an hour ago. Perhaps a thousand feet away Joe saw a vulture bounding along over the terrain. Just about every vulture driver he had ever known was a carefree speed junky whose love of adrenaline was surpassed only by watching an unsuspecting enemy blow up on one of his expertly placed (or so he thought at least) spider mines.

Joe had been casually wandering away from the bunker out into the empty dry plains with his attention drifting from the land to the mountains to the vulture to the darkening sky. He now noticed that Marty was no longer with him. "Marty?" he called out, looking around.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah…"

"Marty?" Joe began running back toward the bunker, and then stopped short. A small puddle of blood soaked into the dirt and disappeared. "Shit!" Joe pressed the talk button on his radio. "Echo station to base," he said frantically. "Uh, something's out here. Something just killed Marty, but I didn't see anything."

"Say again Echo," came the calm reply.

"Something just killed Marty."

"What did?"

"I don't know. I didn't see anything, but now he's dead. We were a short distance from the bunker."

"Hang on Echo." A few moments later a string a blue sparkles made a swirl in the air.

"Hey, there's somebody here!" Marty yelled. He knew _something_ was out there, but now he could see it. The fuzzy outline of a humanoid wearing a cape stood a short distance away. It looked like the figure was holding a long blade. "Intruder alert!" Marty ran a few yards closer to the figure, leveled his Gauss rifle and fired. He saw the shield impacts of the bullets and the figure took of running. It disappeared as the comsat scan faded. "It had a shield," he reported to base, "so I think it was a Protoss."

Mary ran back to the cover of the bunker and the missile turret beside it. Maybe staying put was the better idea after all. At least from here he would see the cloaked figure if it attacked again, but it seemed to be smart enough to avoid the detectors. He looked back out at the sky through the narrow opening in the bunker feeling alone and mostly helpless now. The next few minutes he spent in this way, looking up into space, still shaken by the death of his friend and his own near death, for the Protoss invader could just as easily have killed him too. He wondered why it didn't.

Two lights appeared in the sky and grew steadily bigger. At first Marty thought they were stars, but soon realized they weren't. He made out two oddly shaped ships that he had never seen before. It looked like they had three long sections extending back from the main structure. As they drew closer the missile launcher made visible what the two weird ships were hiding. A whole group of large ships appeared. The formation came to a halt, and then a moment later hordes of small robotic drones came out of them and flew straight for the missile turret, firing small blue energy bursts. Alarms went off all over the base and the turret began firing like crazy, although the multiple drones had it confused. Marty took aim and fired at one of the large ships, but he knew that he would barely scratch it.

A group of goliaths walked up and engaged the enemy formation, but they didn't last long. Marty ran from the bunker and all around him other missile turrets were exploding and bunkers were collapsing. With the outer defenses mostly destroyed, the cloud of drones went in and attacked the core buildings. The barracks and factory were already on fire and the SCVs were in a frenzy with some of them running for their lives after taking a hit and the others attempting without success to repair the burning structures. Not even the Zerg had decimated the base this fast. Not knowing what else to do, Marty turned and ran for the mountains. Ran and didn't look back, for he knew that soon there would be nothing to look back at except small piles of silver debris where the buildings had been.

"This is an outrage!" Admiral Wilson exclaimed in anger when she heard the news of the attack a few hours after it happened. "After signing the peace agreement now the decided to attack again? Get my Executor Phalas now!" After a few minutes the aide in her office was able to contact the Protoss command on Aiur.

"Yes, Admiral," the blue Protoss image on the screen began. "What can I do for you?"

"You've already done enough with your little stunt on Breki Seven."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about."

"At 2335 last night a group of Protoss carriers attacked our base on Breki Seven. Search teams this morning found only one survivor."

"I know nothing of this, believe me, but…"

"But?"

"There is a small but growing faction, a radical faction that believes the Protoss must rule the galaxy. We had taken steps to keep the out of government but they have found ways to get supplies through covert means. It has been rumored that they have a remote base that serves as a collecting place for their stolen and smuggled weaponry, but the base has not been found and some do not even believe it exists. I find it hard to believe that they would have a fleet such as you describe, but I personally lead an investigation to determine exactly what their strength is and eliminated the threat before they can do any further damage."

"Thank you, Executor. I should hate to think that the Protoss would violate the peace treaties now after keeping them for years."

There was little else she could do now diplomatically, but Admiral Wilson did not completely trust the executor. "Who is in command of the second fleet?" she asked the aide.

"That would be Vice Admiral Olson, ma'am," he answered.

"Send him to Breki. His orders are to find and destroy the Protoss who did this. He is free to whatever personnel and equipment he thinks he will need."

"Yes, ma'am, I'll tell him right away."

"Also have all the idle starports in this system get to work. I want battlecruisers, wraiths, valkyries and enough science vessels to give them detector coverage when not near a base with a comsat. Build as many supply depots as it takes. We just might need them, and by the time we know if we do or not it will be too late."


	3. Creatures of the jungle

The early morning sunlight was just beginning to break above the jungle tree tops, filling the sky with reddish orange. A cool breeze swept over the grassy plains and up over the plateau that formed the base. Zamoid, Xiatus's larger moon, was still visible on the horizon as a white circle, made slightly orange by the rising sun. Darker spots indicated craters and smooth plains. Zamoid was a big space rock, unlike the rich jungles that covered most of Xiatus.

"Wha… Wait a minute…" One of the many guards stationed at the edges of the cliff was looking out over the jungle valley below and thought he saw something out there for a moment, but then it disappeared. He went to the nearest missile turret and watched its radar. It remained blank for about ninety seconds before it registered something again. Yes, something was definitely there, and now he could tell what it was.

"Station six, radar contact one-zero-seven," he announced to the command center over his radio. "A Protoss Observer," he said with tone dripping with suspicion and a hint of anger. News of the attack on Breki had just reached the base and the sighting of an observer made most at the base jump. Even the veterans, while not scared, were roused out of their usual calm.

It now became apparent that the Protoss probably had a base, at least a small outpost, somewhere in the general vicinity of the base, but there was no way to know exactly where. Since even a full charged comsat station only provided four scans before needed to recharge, HQ (the call sign of the primary command center) ordered a reconnaissance flight to find evidence of Protoss activity in the area. Their energy reactors were fully charged since they had not needed the cloaking field in a while. They would likely need it now.

"HQ to Teal flight three, you are clear for departure." The flight consisted of four wraiths, Teal three-six, three-seven, three-eight, and three-nine, with three-seven taking the lead since he had the most flight hours. They left base along on a heading into where the observer appeared. The four wraiths maintained a close formation to be able to cover each other better if they were suddenly attacked. To save energy they kept the cloak off for now, but proceeded cautiously so as not to run into something and not have time to quick cloak. They also had to keep careful watch for any detectors, which would neutralize their ability to hide behind the cloaking field. The problem with Protoss is that without a detector of their own they would never know if an observer was nearby. They could think they were invisible when in fact they were not, a potentially deadly situation.

After about thirty minutes of flight, they began to wonder if they were not really just wasting their time. They also worried about leaving the base for a long period of time, but there were plenty of wraiths still there to provide adequate protection. "I say we turn around, or at least change heading, or something," three-nine said to the group. "I mean, there's nothing here."

"Let's just hold this course for another few minutes," three-seven replied. "Then we'll report no joy and ask for further instructions."

It turned out that another few minutes was all they needed. "Hey, something's up there," three-eight said quickly and excitedly.

"All units engage cloak," three-seven ordered. In about one second they all faded into thin air. A small special distortion that was hard to see unless you looked real close would be the only evidence that they were even there.

"We _really_ aren't the only ones on this planet," three-six commented as the four pilots took in the scene below. A group of about seven zealots were locked in battle with ten hydralisks, and, as might be expected, the zealots were winning. The wraiths watched from cloak as another hydra collapsed into a pile of gush, leaving only eight. The zealots were getting beat up as well, but none had died. When the Zerg were down to four left, a flock of five mutalisks came flying in and attacked the Protoss. The zealots continued their attack and it took the arrival of a guardian to scare them off. More hydralisks could be seen approaching on the horizon.

"Now that was interesting," three-seven said. "Hopefully the Zerg and the Protoss will keep each other busy. No need for either of them to bother us."

"You hope," three-six replied, knowing that it rarely if ever worked like that. After one killed the other, the survivor would then proceed to look for anything else alive and go after that.

The zealots returned, this time with four dragoons walking up behind them. The Zs went straight for the hydralisks again, and just before two scouts engaged the mutalisks a templar made itself known through the small lightning bolts that appeared over the mutalisks. The birds quickly moved away, but were weakened enough to be easy pickings for the antimatter missiles of the scouts.

"Now's when we leave," three-seven said quickly, pulling his wraith around and heading away from the battle. The other three followed suit before they knew why.

As he was making the turn, three-nine glanced over to his right to see an overlord approaching with about twenty hydralisks and three lurkers walking along under it. "Oh my God…"

"Exactly," three-seven replied. In large numbers, hydralisks could wreak havoc on air units, and who was to say that after finishing the Protoss they wouldn't take advantage of four targets of opportunity that the overlord would have pointed out to them.


End file.
